Using the wrong word
- Thread starter Oli
- Start date
:thumbsup::bugeye:
You're rickrolling, and you're telling someone to get with the times? That's pretty funny.
Rickrolling is a tired old meme. It was occasionally funny two years ago, now it's just annoying.
Grow up and get with the times.
Edit: Latest xkcd:
"Does your dog bite?"
:roflmao:
:roflmao:
I'm currently grading standardized tests given high school students in various states under the No Child Left Behind federal mandates.
Scoring essay questions' answers on a four point scale.
And I'm seeing something I don't remember from years ago: replacement of words by other words that are not closely similar in phonetics. Lick for like, for example. Tread for tried.
These answers are handwritten, but they exhibit a word-replacement phenomenon I'd come to associate with computer composition using Microsoft Word, which is often configured to replace misspellings - or even entire correct but disapproved words - with its own selection from its dictionary, without flagging the swap.
The replacement words are often correctly spelled.
These issues don't affect the score, usually. But they are beginning to puzzle me. Is my memory faulty, has computer texting created a new way of going about things mentally, or what is going on?
And why do kids spell "opinion" as "opion"? I've even seen "oppion" a couple of times. I haven't seen "opinon", "oppinion", "opinon", "pinion" or any variant, "oponin" or any variant with the second o there, or any other variant - but "opion" is more common than the correct spelling. Anyone know?
Scoring essay questions' answers on a four point scale.
And I'm seeing something I don't remember from years ago: replacement of words by other words that are not closely similar in phonetics. Lick for like, for example. Tread for tried.
These answers are handwritten, but they exhibit a word-replacement phenomenon I'd come to associate with computer composition using Microsoft Word, which is often configured to replace misspellings - or even entire correct but disapproved words - with its own selection from its dictionary, without flagging the swap.
The replacement words are often correctly spelled.
These issues don't affect the score, usually. But they are beginning to puzzle me. Is my memory faulty, has computer texting created a new way of going about things mentally, or what is going on?
And why do kids spell "opinion" as "opion"? I've even seen "oppion" a couple of times. I haven't seen "opinon", "oppinion", "opinon", "pinion" or any variant, "oponin" or any variant with the second o there, or any other variant - but "opion" is more common than the correct spelling. Anyone know?
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
"Rickrolling" is a cutesy word for trolling, by posting the lyrics to a song that everyone now hates. Trolling is a violation of the SciForums rules. Don't do it again or you will be banned.
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
Before performing such a reiteration you should verify your opinion in a dictionary. Dictionary.com lists "transition" as a verb and "disconnect" as a noun. Frankly it's not easy to come up with a good alternative to "transition." It's formed form "transit," and it doesn't quite work to say, "Our consulting firm isn't as profitable since we transited from federal contracts to the private sector."
"Disconnection" can of course be used as a noun in place of "disconnect." But it's well established in the telecommunications industry so its spread was inevitable in the internet age.
I don't understand how that fits the topic of this thread.
Ditto. What's the context? Are you referring to its common use to mean "in a moment" rather than "for a moment," as in "I'll be back momentarily"? Agreed. That sentence means, literally, "I'll be back, but I'll only stay a moment."
Because it has fewer letters and is easier to write! This is the generation of text-messaging twits. Or tweets or twats or whatever they call themselves.
"Boondocks" said it best: "Nothing worth reading was every written by a person who was typing with his thumbs."
That's the context, the misuse - but these days that seems to be the only way it's used (at least in conversation).Ditto. What's the context? Are you referring to its common use to mean "in a moment" rather than "for a moment," as in "I'll be back momentarily"? Agreed. That sentence means, literally, "I'll be back, but I'll only stay a moment."
Flight magazine used to do a humour column on its last page (all aviation-related) and one reported quote I particularly remember was the announcement from the pilot of a large passenger aircraft stating that passengers should fasten their seat belts as the plane would be airborne momentarily.
The word ironic is abused constantly. Just another tell of the marginal literacy of television news anchors/reporters.
Though they aren't using any words incorrectly, another thing local TV news reporters always get wrong is when a home built private aircraft crashes. The FAA requires that home built aircraft say "Experimental" on the fuselage. It is a legal designation, and still applies if you build a Piper Cub (a 77 year old design) and it has passed all inspections. It crashes, and the reporters say "An experimental aircraft crashed today", which implies that some mad scientist built some crazy non-airworthy plane from blue prints out of an old issue of Popular Science.
Though they aren't using any words incorrectly, another thing local TV news reporters always get wrong is when a home built private aircraft crashes. The FAA requires that home built aircraft say "Experimental" on the fuselage. It is a legal designation, and still applies if you build a Piper Cub (a 77 year old design) and it has passed all inspections. It crashes, and the reporters say "An experimental aircraft crashed today", which implies that some mad scientist built some crazy non-airworthy plane from blue prints out of an old issue of Popular Science.
Pandaemoni
Valued Senior Member
I see "flammable" far more than I see "inflammable, even in places like the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (which, as definition 1 for inflammable, merely refers the reader to the definition of flammable). http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/inflammable
Since flammable has been around for nearly two centuries, I think it has to be accepted that both words have found their place. At this point, it is akin to the silent letter "s" in the word "island." (It was added because people assumed that "iland," a word with Anglo-Saxon roots, was related to "isle," a word that came in from French.) The "s" should not be there and people were wrong to add it, but it's a widely accepted "feature" of the language now.
re "opion":
And that doesn't explain how they all came up with the same one, and especially of how the sound of it - and of other replacement words or misspellings - seems disconnected from the trend. Especially when "oppion" shows up, while "oponin" and "opinon" never do (or haven't yet), something odd is going on. They seem to be hearing something like "oppion" in their inner voice - or never hearing these words at all, and exhibiting a visual form of linguistic evolution ?
The essays are otherwise reasonably clear of texting sullage - the kids have been warned, obviously.fraggle said:
And that doesn't explain how they all came up with the same one, and especially of how the sound of it - and of other replacement words or misspellings - seems disconnected from the trend. Especially when "oppion" shows up, while "oponin" and "opinon" never do (or haven't yet), something odd is going on. They seem to be hearing something like "oppion" in their inner voice - or never hearing these words at all, and exhibiting a visual form of linguistic evolution ?
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
For a publication that claims to champion integrity in scholarship, they certainly drew that tyrannosaurus wrong. The largest species, T. rex, was only forty feet long.
For a publication that claims to champion integrity in scholarship, they certainly drew that tyrannosaurus wrong. The largest species, T. rex, was only forty feet long.
It's stepping on a Wendy house.
Another report from the standardized junior high school handwritten test essay grading front: very commonly, I'm seeing the word "drawling" used in place of "drawing", and the word "death" used in place of "deaf".
(I am also seeing bizarre hyphenations of words at line breaks (woul - d, headpho - nes, WWI - I ) but that is easy to explain as a carryover from wrapped text on a phone screen. The origin of the extra "l" in "drawling", the "th" for "f", and similar oddities, is not so obvious to me).
(I am also seeing bizarre hyphenations of words at line breaks (woul - d, headpho - nes, WWI - I ) but that is easy to explain as a carryover from wrapped text on a phone screen. The origin of the extra "l" in "drawling", the "th" for "f", and similar oddities, is not so obvious to me).
Man : Does your dog bite?
Boy : No, Sir.
Man pets dog.
Dog : Grrrr Rawlf Chomp
Man : You said your dog doesn't bite!
Boy : That's not my dog.
Boy : No, Sir.
Man pets dog.
Dog : Grrrr Rawlf Chomp
Man : You said your dog doesn't bite!
Boy : That's not my dog.